Many things happened during my stay, which lasted just over a year from about September of 2004 until October 2005. I recall multiple staff members severely injuring kids, one specific staff member named Clay. There were positive and negatives about this program.. They tout a life changing program full of therapy and behavior modification. We'll, I met with my therapist maybe a handful of times all of which culminated into a half assed diagnosis and cookie cutter treatment plan. I remember a girl turning 18 there and leaving the program, only to discover she had moved in with a male staff member whom I am certain had been raping her ( it is technically rape as there can be no consent when a person in a position of authority over another is engaging in sex acts)
Her name was Stacy, I believe his was Chesley. There were decent staff members there, Brad who is now a teacher was just starting out and was a very decent individual. Steve Church was another awesome person, an art teacher. While I didn't have a talent for art i could count on his genuine level of interest and concern for the direction our lives had all taken. Fights were very common in and around the living areas or "cabins", as well as outright assaults and hazing. Food was plentiful and quite good actually. The only exception was breakfast on the weekends if you were a level 1, which meant you were in the gym doing cardio before AND after eating, leading to multiple instances of vomiting as kids tended to load up at breakfast. The level system was bogus, I was ****ed with when I first got there, and was demoted to level 1, learning quickly that nothing good came of it ( at that time, you weren't even allowed to attend school if you were level 1, you had to work the ranch with Dan or Bill) it took six months to get level 5, which hardly any one ever does because hey we were all **** ups, I just happen to only be a **** up when I use drugs. Absent substances I thrive in any environment. Any ways, my first counselors name was Skip, who was an ******* with no business dealing with kids- stick to the horses instead. I was a runaway for almost a year, sat in Juvie for 2 weeks and got sent there immediately, during which time I had little interaction with my family, and he was lecturing me on not acting so "entitled" to our *entitled* weekly phone calls, because he needed to be there for the entire call and this was a great inconvenience( he didn't, and it wasnt) I was reassigned to my second and final counselor, Sam. A mellow individual that was no nonsense and very practical, even taking kids on cook outs oftentimes. I was able to attend a drivers education course at the school as well as get my diploma. Leaving with that and a license at sixteen I had the whole world ahead of me. What'd I do? Go to college, have a family, buy a house, travel the world, right? Absolutely not. I didn't start my first college course until six months ago, almost 18 years after I graduated. I had a kid, when I was 17 and have been absent for much of her life growing up until recently. Could have bought a few houses with the money I've let slip through my fingers feeding my addictive desires through the years. Why buy a house when you're in and out of prison so often, why travel on your own when you can roll the dice and see which part of the state the chain bus will ship you to this time.after dozens of arrests, ten felony convictions and a strike, I'm out and finally found out what I needed to in order to remain a free man and be a father and respectable member of my community and conduct myself in an appropriate manner. I didn't learn anything about myself at SRS. We all bull****ted our way out of there, including me. Say what you need to say. Do what you need to do. Most memories are so ******* traumatic that I couldn't wait to put it and everything associated with it in the rear view. After learning about forced marches and the mass killings throughout Eastern Europe it certainly seemed that the owners took a liking to those tactics and set about implementing the most ludicrous and demeaning treatments for "punishment". Shoveling **** from one pile to another, repeating. Sitting on a fence facing the sun, all day. Rain snow sleet didn't matter. Sit there. Forced "hikes" either in a large cow pasture over a square mile in diameter, or on a gravel roadway with a van trailing behind. Wet and frostbite toes from the thigh high snow drifts of the pasture, or the scorching heat and dehydration of summer on a literal forced March to nowhere. We were slaves. They were literally well compensated to treat us any way they wanted to. Taking advantage of parents and families that were out of options or weren't aware of them in the first place, their sales tactics are smooth. They bring a brown nosing **** eating PPMer ( positive peer model) to spout the positives of the place and how much they've changed and all the great things to do. Meanwhile they're paid something like 68ce